100 years ago today, on the 25th of December 1914, soldiers fighting WW1 in france climbed out of their trenches and met in No Mans Land. Reports say they spent the day exchanging gifts, singing together and some even believe a game of football took place. I think this is truely extrodinary that even in the middle of war these men came together with the ones they were fighting against to share christmas. This event should never be forgotten.

So to mark this day i wrote a short story. It was inspired by The Book Theif in a way, which is a wonderful book and film, and i hope you enjoy it.

At the side i will attach the Sainsburys Christmas advert. I know this has had a lot of hate saying they are using the event, however i personally love it. I think it is a wonderful short film and the fact that all money spent on the chocolate bars (like the ones seen in the film) goes to the Royal British Legion is wonderful. (However only thing with it is i do believe it was actually the Germans to climb out first, not the allies, but still.)

So, yeh I hope you all enjoy it and i wish you all a Merry Christmas!

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The human race is a fascinating thing; terrifying, angry, violent - oh ever so violent - and ever so scared of one thing or another. Fear is rooted within all of them, all their tiny minds and tiny lives lined with it. A fear of failure, a fear of success; a fear of change, and a fear of nothing ever changing; a fear of others, and a fear of being alone; a fear of life itself. However, perhaps the most common fear of them all is a fear of dying. A fear of the unknown darkness, that nothing can explain, that haunts them all.

Of course this fear cannot be avoided, not for any man, woman or child. It will always be just around the corner, waiting. But sometimes, just sometimes and in special cases, it can be...delayed; if just temporally.

As I have said, humans fascinate me, more than any other creature on their small ball of rock. Their angry and need for power and destruction has shaped their world for thousands of years, from their first steps along the evolutionary tree they have been striving for more power: power within the tribe; power over the village; power over the city; power over the country; over its people; power over the next country; and the next; and the next; power over the whole world. And for years, this is all I saw them as. From a distance, it's all they seem to be, and I never bothered to look closer, why should I? I have a job to do after all, and that doesn't involve caring about them, or studying them, or even giving their affairs the slightest bit of thought, and so, I didn't. I stood by their plague pits and their battle fields and their executions and I saw the cruelty of humanity at its worst. Few things however can compare to the events of what I believe the people now refer to as 'The Great War'.

They called it 'the war to end all wars'. They said it was 'necessary for peace'. They said it would 'all be over and done by Christmas'. And people believe them. Thousands of them swamped to join in, thousands of little eager humans, following a false idea like sheep. I laughed at them at the time. I laughed at their naivety, and I watched as they slowly realised they had signed themselves up for the quick pass to human fear number one. And I didn't think anything else of it.

I watched the men, the boys, sit freezing in their little ditches of ground, soaking and dying in the mud. I watched them kill and I watched them die, just as I have always done, just as man has always done. But then, on the night of Christmas Eve, the first Christmas of the war, and the last Christmas for thousands, something changed in those horror filled fields.

The guns fell silent along the front line of war and somewhere, huddled in the mud, an ordinary group of men began to sing. Slowly, as they sang, they began to forget the mud and the cold and their fears, as slowly, others joined in, throwing away their own fears, lifting the song higher into the night and casting their fears further. The sound carried through the darkness, across to the opposing line and though the words were different, the tune was the same and soon the front line was filled with the chorus of thousands of voices, languages mixing together to follow one tune.

I have watched this planet for as long as there has been life to watch over, I have seen more than any of their tiny minds would ever understand, and yet, one simple song, in one remote little corner of the world, caught my eye and for the first time in billions of years, I stopped to listen.

As Christmas morning dawned the singing had died. I was about to turn away, pass it off as one of those little, interesting, unique yet altogether unextraordinary moments that crops up among humans from time to time, when a particular boy caught my attention. I had never stopped to look at a human before, not to really look at one, a living, breathing one anyway.

This young man took off his helmet and stood up, letting his head bob up over the protective line of the trenches. I watched in anticipation, sensing his fear, sensing how close he was to becoming another victim of fear number one as the sound of guns clicking into place could be heard.

As I have said, that particular fear cannot be avoided, not for no man, yet sometimes, some would say by a miracle or by fate, it can be delayed. However, it is by neither of these things. The humans; the violent, selfish, terrified humans, sometimes, all it takes is them. Them to find their courage and earn the right to call a word for compassion and love after themselves; sometimes all it takes is a little humanity.

30 yards away, one young lad put down his gun, and stood up, out of his trench, opposite the enemy. I watched in bewilderment as the two watched each other and slowly, climbed free of their trenches; slowly followed by others.

These humans, these primitive animals, so full of fear and anger, coming together, out of the pits of hell, to join with the enemy; it goes against all I thought I knew of humans.

I looked down upon their greetings, their songs and sharing of stories and items, even their football game and I did not see angry, violence or fear. I merely saw kindness, generosity and joy.

In all these billions of years I have never been truly amazed, bewildered nor intrigued, not until this moment; until two foes joined together in the midst of war to share Christmas together.

And although when the day was over and each returned to his own side and when a new day dawned they would return to the war, the day itself, the friendships made, were never forgotten. For these few men had proved that even in the darkest moments, in the largest of power struggles and most violent of times, there is still some goodness within humans, I may even go as far as to say, humanity, that, if not careful, it is easy to overlook.

And so, even though humanity shall go on fearing me as long as they walk this earth, I myself have learnt that, perhaps, that word of compassion and leniency may, perhaps, deserve its shared meaning after all.

Happy Christmas Everyone & don't forget to spare a thought for all those who gave their lives all those years ago, and to those still giving them today and to all the people less fortunate than ourselves this Christmas. Thank you.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year :)

Jess xxx :)